Let's not mention that Sasuke had just set out not long ago, only to find his ultimate target had already fled ahead of time.
After enjoying a special curry at a mysterious curry shop located in the wilderness, they incidentally picked up a side quest.
Simply put, the curry shop owner, Grandma Sansho's son Karashi, had gone astray. Believing he should go out and make his mark, he ended up falling in with the wrong crowd.
Now the kid was causing trouble in a neighboring village alongside a force composed of Missing-nin.
"Aren't we supposed to be looking for the Akatsuki organization? Why are we taking on this unrelated matter?"
Walking out of Grandma Sansho's shop, Sasuke, whose mouth was ringed red from the spice, complained indignantly.
Since leaving Konoha, the only thing he wanted was to find Itachi and kill him.
"Hmph, whatever Naruto-san says to do, we do. He must have his deeper reasons. You, the 'dead-last' who can't even control his transformation properly, should stop complaining."
Before Naruto or Jiraiya could even speak, Karin was the first to retort.
She had felt displeased with Sasuke from the moment she met him.
'To show not even a shred of respect towards Naruto-san… He's truly arrogant.'
For Sasuke, this was the first time someone had called him a 'dead-last'. It could be considered a brand new experience.
"You-"
Sasuke stared Karin with an unfriendly glare, and Karin glared back defiantly, seemingly completely unafraid.
"Alright, alright... you two stop arguing. Let Naruto explain."
Jiraiya stepped between the two, interrupting their dispute. At that moment, Naruto took the opportunity to explain.
"Sasuke, you haven't fully mastered the power of that fruit yet, right?"
Hearing this, a look of understanding appeared on Sasuke's face.
Indeed, a day had passed since leaving Konoha, but every time Sasuke tried to transform into his Huodou's form, he always ended up in the [Full Beast Form]. Attempting to shift to the more close-combat suitable [Human-Beast Form] always ended in failure.
In fact, this pace was already quite fast.
After all, even someone called a 'genius' like Rob Lucci took considerable time to fully master switching between Human-Beast and Full Beast Forms.
But with Karin's example of achieving three-stage transformation on the very same day, Sasuke's progress did seem slower by comparison.
"Anyway, that village is on our necessary route. We might as help them out along the way."
"These enemies are perfect for you to familiarize yourselves with your abilities. It's hard to improve just by training on your own."
Seeing that Sasuke remained silent, Naruto explained his reasoning for taking on the task.
Of course, aside from letting Sasuke familiarize himself with his power through actual combat, Naruto's inner hero complex couldn't ignore injustice happening right before his eyes.
"Besides, with both of your strength, handling this minor nuisance shouldn't take much time, right?"
Finally, Naruto even resorted to a rare use of reverse psychology.
But this tactic was especially effective against Sasuke.
Sure enough, as soon as the words were spoken, he stopped talking about revenge. With eyes wide, he strode ahead to the front of the group.
Naruto and Jiraiya exchanged a smile upon seeing this, while Karin just curled her lip.
Finding the group of Missing-nins causing trouble was easier than expected.
Following the villagers' directions, Naruto and his group hadn't gone far before they ran straight into the [Kurosuki Family] in the midst of their misdeeds.
These guys were actually burying villagers alive.
Sasuke, never one for unnecessary talk, prepared to take action immediately but was pulled back by Naruto grabbing his collar.
"Your opponent isn't them. Leave these guys to Karin."
As he spoke, he lifted Sasuke with one arm, stretched it back, and put force into it.
"Wait-"
Sasuke seemed to realize what was about to happen and quickly turned his head, only to see Naruto's grinning face.
"This is faster!"
Whoosh-
Sasuke shot like an arrow toward the mountaintop opposite them, making Jiraiya cover his face in secondhand embarrassment.
"Naruto, your methods are too rough..."
To this, Naruto simply responded with a polite yet unchanged smile.
He had already sensed someone observing them from a distance earlier.
There were two figures, one large and one small. Their presence wasn't weak… in fact, it was comparable to that of [Demon] Zabuza from back in the day, so Naruto believed they are the leaders of this group.
"Naruto-san, which one among these people is Granny Sansho's son?"
Behind them, Karin was already surrounded by the group of cloaked figures.
But there wasn't a trace of fear on her face. Her dismissive attitude instantly enraged these guys.
They tore off their robes, revealing sharp steel claws on their hands.
This seemed to be their standard equipment.
Without caring about the imbalance of numbers or ganging up on a single opponent, these guys lunged straight at Karin.
It was only then that Naruto's voice drifted over lazily.
"Don't worry about it. After you've beaten them all up, we can take our time figuring it out."
A kid who aides an abettor… even if the reason for their coming was to take Karashi back, a proper lesson was necessary.
"Die!"
The underlings of the Kurosuki Family let out the standard roar of cannon fodder.
But their steel claws didn't pierce flesh as usual. Instead, they clashed against something much harder.
It was a golden 'bird-man' floating majestically like a god.
Their steel claws had just been blocked by this creature's golden feathers.
"Enemies of this level aren't even worth testing my skills on."
Considering she needed to leave them alive, Karin didn't use her feather attacks. Instead, she raised her fists.
"I'll just beat every single one of you up!"
On the mountaintop, Kurosuki Raiga looked at Sasuke, who had landed rather clumsily in front of him, and showed a twisted smile.
"Coming to deliver yourself to my doorstep? It seems I need to hold a funeral for you-" As he spoke, he directly drew his two special Ninja Swords, the Lightning Blades, Kiba.
This guy actually was one of Kirigakure's Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, and even the first user of the Raidō.
After the Seven Ninja Swordsmen were kicked into the [Three Lucky Survivors] by a certain Konoha's Genin, he fled the battlefield.
Later, he even defected from Kirigakure and became a Missing-nin.
As a fairly famous player from the 'last season', Raiga's strength shouldn't be underestimated. At the very least, pre-fruit Sasuke would have had a hard time dealing with him alone.
Crossing the two swords together, lightning quickly gathered and surged toward Sasuke ahead.
He didn't care about fair fights.
But the imagined scene of Sasuke being electrocuted to a crisp didn't materialize.
Under the lightning, a majestic giant dog turned its head and fixed its gaze on him.
The moment their eyes met, all the fear and madness Raiga had ever felt flooded into Sasuke's mind.
The giant dog's mouth slowly opened, and black-red flames 'burned' away all the surrounding lightning.
"You… your scent is really foul."
"What… what are you?"
Raiga couldn't laugh now, staring at Sasuke who had transformed from a human into his Huodou Form.
Although he didn't know what is Huodou, that didn't stop him from sensing a great threat from the other party.
"Damn it!"
Kiba slashed again, dozens of spherical lightning bolts quickly engulfing Sasuke's figure.